Washington — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden and a number one official within the struggle in opposition to the coronavirus pandemic, has examined positive for COVID-19, the National Institutes of Health introduced.
The NIH mentioned in an announcement that Fauci, 81, is absolutely vaccinated and has been boosted twice. He is experiencing mild symptoms, and has not lately been in shut contact with President Biden or different prime authorities officers, the company mentioned.
Fauci, the director of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) since 1984, acquired his positive consequence on a speedy antigen check, and can return to work on the NIH when he tests destructive, the company mentioned.
Fauci has been a key, and at occasions polarizing, determine within the nation’s efforts to fight the pandemic since its begin in early 2020, advising each former President Donald Trump and President Biden on the federal response. He managed to keep away from contracting COVID-19 till now — greater than two years after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a world pandemic.
Fauci turned a family title all through the pandemic, showing continuously alongside Trump throughout in-person briefings on the White House within the early days of the general public well being emergency and in on-line briefings held by Mr. Biden’s COVID-19 Response Team after he assumed the presidency.
During appearances on Capitol Hill, Fauci sparred usually with Republican senators over mitigation efforts together with mask-wearing and testing necessities.
His elevated public profile led to threats and harassment in opposition to him and his household, he informed a Senate panel in January. In late 2020, a California man was arrested after police in Iowa allegedly discovered weapons and an obvious hit checklist, naming Fauci, in his automotive. A West Virginia man additionally pleaded responsible final month to sending threatening emails to Fauci and former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.
Now Fauci joins a protracted line of federal officers who, though they’re vaccinated and boosted, examined positive for COVID-19, together with Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and numerous members of Mr. Biden’s Cabinet.
In January, he predicted the extremely contagious Omicron variant will “ultimately find just about everybody,” however famous Americans who’re vaccinated and boosted will do “reasonably well” provided that the pictures defend in opposition to hospitalization and loss of life.
Fauci was scheduled to seem with different prime federal well being officers earlier than the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday to offer an replace on the federal response to COVID-19.